World powers meeting in Munich have announced a ceasefire plan for Syria. Fighting is supposed to stop in a week. But no Syrians were at the conference, leaving this observer skeptical about the implementation of the deal.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has given a rare interview to the media — to the BBC. Assad denied using barrel bombs. But British trauma surgeon David Nott was astonished to hear that, since he was nearly killed by one of the devices in Aleppo a few months ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan don't often see eye-to-eye on important foreign policy issues, such as Russia's annexation of Crimea and the crisis in Syria. But when the two leaders met at the beginning of the week in Ankara, they became a "coalition of the unwilling."

Syria's official news agency, SANA, publishes a website in eight language — including most recently in Hebrew. The Syrian regime added Hebrew, the official language of Israel, to "gain the upper hand in the battle for public opinion."